Hailing from the northern Rhône and a family of local farmers, Nicolas Badel is not one to rush anything; instead, he is a steadfast perfectionist who prefers to take his time and do things the right way. Nicolas’ wine-making is non-formulaic; he adapts it to the unique conditions of each vintage. The essence of his philosophy is to make terroir and finesse-driven wines that are pure, precise, clean, and transparent. The wines are well-structured yet also approachable and easy to drink. For this reason, he is now regarded in the same league with his friend Pierre Gonon.

His small winery is located near Vernosc-lès-Annonay, on the wild, forested plateau above the Cance valley, a tributary of the Rhône. Nicolas Badel’s farming has been certified organic since the very beginning and he is now in the process of carefully working biodynamics into his vineyards, with the intent of making the finest wines possible from his terroir. His labels feature a reproduction of the Roman coins from 75 BC that were found in the Intuition vineyard (along with other artifacts) during planting, evidence of the historic precedence of his vineyards.

Petite Roche is Badel’s fresh and easy-to-drink cuvée from young vines in his wild, high-altitude Rochegrand vineyard at 350m. Aging is in cement to preserve the identity of the syrah grapes grown in granitic soil without wine making tricks. Petite Roche is a very fresh, fruit-forward expression of syrah with all of the signature peppery-dark fruit and drinkability one expects, with an unexpected extra refinement from his exceptional farming. A wine for pure pleasure.

Vinification – After a manual harvest, the grapes are destemmed and the wine then ferments spontaneously with indigenous yeasts for 15 days in concrete tanks, with a gentle maceration, followed by eight months aging in cement tanks. No sulfur is added during the vinification process, only a small amount at bottling.

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